With an estimated 236,000 people, or nine per cent of the population with diabetes, a study found that only 106,000 of Jamaicans are aware of their status.
These alarming statistics have prompted the Health and Wellness Ministry of Jamaica to announce an initiative to help determine the health status of people through a screening programme.
The Health and Wellness Minister, says his ministry will help people adjust their behaviour to reduce illness and premature death through an initiative dubbed ‘Know Your Numbers’.
The healthy lifestyle initiative is seeking to get 500,000 screening tests done through 2023 and 2024 to provide Jamaicans the opportunity to become aware of what they are vulnerable to and the necessary action to be taken in order to correct this through lifestyle changes.
In Parliament Tufton said the Know Your Numbers plan of action is a practical response to the biggest health crisis facing Jamaica today that he described as lifestyle diseases and premature mortality.
“Too many Jamaicans are walking sick and they do not know until they tumble down, a heart attack, a stroke, that’s just the reality,” he said. “Too many Jamaicans are walking sick and they do not know until they tumble down, a heart attack, a stroke, that’s just the reality,” he said.
CAPTION: Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton MP, (right) said: “Screening will become a routine operating procedure through our primary reform programme, in particular our lifestage approach. This means, once you enter a facility for any concern or examination, you will be provided with a health screening.”
He said the Health and Wellness Ministry, through the regional health authorities, will repurpose mobile units used in COVID-19 service delivery to offer mobile screening services to the community, place of work, and recreation areas.
“We will partner with community leaders and civic groups. We will plan and execute community outreach to support screening, targeting the most vulnerable populations in Jamaica,” he said.
Advocacy Action: Do you have any screening programmes? Could you use examples of successful screening in other countries to promote in your own?